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Result - Rwanda Tour - CBH Cup

Fri Sep 20th The Grannies won the Bronze medal

Match report

Grannies Rwanda Tour Diary

February 2024

15 loyal Grannies members all get a ping on their phone as Bob Percival has managed to
create a WhatsApp chat; the title: Rwanda 2024. ‘Oh, it’s actually happening’ was the first
message I received. A rendezvous at Percival’s local haunt, Tempio’s, followed a few days later, filled with introductions and several bottles of wine, a far cry from Kigali.

20th September 2024
We cut to six months later, Bob has assembled his squad of Grannies’ for the hotly-anticipated eight hours of RwandAir travel. Despite two players and one partner almost missing the flight, the squad, following obligatory pre-flight Spoons pints, was safely on the way to its Rwandan adventure.

The Squad

Newcomb, Q ©
Ahmad, M
Bell, C
Colehan, T
Crawford-Khan, A
Felgate, H
Hungin, S
Job, P
Nagar, P
Packer, S
Pal, A
Percival, R
Rose, J
Saunders, R
Tritton, F


Having demonstrated a range of long-haul flight techniques ranging from a full flight’s sleep
to a broken television to eight glasses of gin and no tonic, the team touched down in Kigali
in varying states of sobriety and rest. The diversity of the group was perhaps best
highlighted in the first team photo of the tour, with the well-rested looking sharp in
Grannies blazers, chinos, shirt and tour tie, while the youth academy products had donned
their finest tracksuits and t-shirts to pair with their blazers and ties. At this point the tour
social media manager wished to note that ‘it may have helped that some members turned
left upon boarding the plane’.
The Grannies had arrived in Kigali, Rwanda.

21st September 2024
Luggage secured following a face-off with CTCCCC in the airport, we met up with Will from
The Cricket Builds Hope team. Will was the tour organiser, and we owe him a big thank you
for arranging the tour. We also met with our local guide, Ali, who we quickly found out that,
despite having supported Chelsea for most of his life, was now a Spurs fan – an ominous
sign for the tour given his poor taste in London football clubs.
A short bus ride to the hotel and we had arrived at our home for the week, The Cozy Safari.
Percival had very efficiently, if perhaps optimistically, organised a warm-up game for that
afternoon, and so after a brief rest the majority of the team was on the way to the ground
(three tourists having ruled themselves out of contention in order to immerse themselves in
African culture by making their way to the nearest sports bar to watch the Premier League
and gorge themselves on barbecued goat and local beer/cider).
In the meantime, the team had arrived at the beautiful Gahanga Cricket Stadium, an ICC
approved ground, where more international cricket was played last year than anywhere else in the world. Our opponents for the first game would be The Cambridge to Casablanca Cycling Cricket Club, of the aforementioned airport showdown.
In all honesty, the Social Media secretary was parked up in a local bar so wasn’t too aware
of the result, but following a rain-affected match, The Grannies did lose the warmup game,
with the greater loss coming in the form of our first casualty of the tour, Justin Rose, who
very sadly injured his bowling arm in the warmup that ruled him out the tournament.
There was a large dinner at the ground put on for all teams and the beers started flowing for
some of the squad…

22nd September 2024, 8.15AM.
The bus is due to depart as The Grannies play the first game of The Cricket Builds Hope Cup.
But, a few too many drinks were consumed at a local nightclub and some players aren’t up
yet. An honourable mention to S Packer who wasn’t due to be playing and decided to enjoy
the night out a little more before a 7am knock on the door from Percival informing him of a
line-up change.

22nd September 2024, 8.45AM.
Nagar finally gets on the bus.
Our first game is against The Kenyan Kongonis Cricket Club. The smart tour kit beautifully
designed by S Packer made it out of the plastic packaging as The Grannies won the toss and
elected to bat first in the 35 over game. M Ahmad had just landed but was straight into the
lineup at the top of the order, and he did not disappoint. Nagar was still seeing 3 white balls
as he partnered Ahmad on a hot, dry day, although sadly he did not last long at the crease.
The fall of the first wicket allowed Zaki Crawford-Khan to come out at 3, and what happened
next was quite simply incredible; fast forward 31 overs and The Grannies are on 233-1, a
record partnership, and two of the worst cases of pad-rash in Grannies history, M Ahmad
finishing on 158 while Crawford-Khan was finally removed for 78 as The Grannies set the
Kenyans 264 to win.
The Second Innings: T Colehan snaffled the opener with his first ball of the tour, a lovely
legside long-hop loosener, before Crawford-Khan got into his work picking up 4 wickets.
Some erratic (this is putting it very mildly) bowling in the middle overs meant that despite
the earlier heroics, in typical Grannies style we still nearly lost this, with F Tritton causing several injuries with some erratic deliveries. But some fine death bowling from
S Packer held off the Kenyans as we came away with a 16 run win.
Special mention for the resident ball magnet, R Saunders, who was peppered from all angles
in the field but was rarely if ever breached, and a note here too for Captain Q Newcomb for
masterfully marshalling the field as the Kenyans closed in on our total.
By the time we finished, an amazing crowd of 400 school kids had gathered to cheer us on. Some games were played with the kids and some beers were enjoyed in the sun as the team basked in the beautiful sunset.

That evening the team went to a local bar to watch Shooting Dogs, a film all about the genocide in 1994, conveniently being shown in the same venue where some of the team have vague recollections of partying 24 hours before, it was a little quieter leaving that evening.

23rd September 2024
No game for two days so some free time! Half of the squad headed up to Lake Kivu and the
mountains to see gorillas and explore. Please have a look at the photo album attached. The
remaining team went out to explore Kigali and the local culture of goat and beer (this was a
bit of a theme for the week).

24th September 2024
Another day off and this time the remaining half of the team had the 5am wake-up call to
journey to Akagera National Park for a safari. After 3 hours of death-defying driving, they
had arrived. The team were incredibly fortunate to see lions, rhinos, giraffes, monkeys,
zebras and even an elephant on the way out, with M Ahmad providing expert commentary
and analysis on some of the more primal events of the day.
The gorilla team were doing more sightseeing and played a cricket match against a local
school up in the mountains with all back in Kigali for a team dinner in the evening ahead of a
crucial match against the Rwanda Invitational XI.

25th September 2024
Match day against the hosts and favourite for the cup, the Rwanda Development XI, and a few more injuries had hit the camp; S Hungin’s thumb injury preventing him from keeping (thank you, Felix), Crawford-Khan struggling with a shoulder injury, and the usually sprightly H Felgate dealing with a troublesome hamstring.
The Grannies lost the toss and were sent out to bat against a very sharp and energetic
fielding side. Half centuries for Crawford-Khan and A Pal (turns out he can run between the
wickets as long as he’s not bowled beforehand, but more on that later) meant the Grannies
finished their 35 overs on 172, a respectable total given the opposition, but which always
looked a little light on this batting surface. The Rwandans set about the task with haste,
their international players proving to be too strong as they comfortably chased down the
Grannies total.
A special treat was in order for The Grannies that evening as we ventured to the British High
Commissioner’s House for drinks with all the touring sides, T Colehan couldn’t contain his
excitement as he put his political training to work with the High Commissioner over some
local tobacco. The Grannies, all dressed in their blazers, were awarded first prize for looks before the squad then rolled to our most-frequented watering hole, The Sundowner where the locals looked a bit bewildered at the site of 15 men turning up in matching attire. More
goat and beer followed.

26th September 2024
Another day off for the Grannies and it was time to visit the Kigali Genocide Museum, a
deeply thought-provoking experience absorbing the tragic history of the brutal murder of 800,000 plus Rwandans in 100 days in 1994, with the Kigali Memorial ground itself built around the graves of 250,000 citizens.
A small splinter group headed on the day safari, and everyone reconvened for dinner that
evening. Sleep was on the cards today ahead of a must win match against CTCCCC.

27th September 2024
Match day against our ‘local’ rivals, CTCCCC. It was a hot day but our skipper won the toss
and elected to field(?). The Grannies strode out with purpose, but that was quickly stymied
when Captain Q Newcomb was forced to leave the field due to illness, exacerbating the
earlier blow in the day when M Ahmad picked up a case of food poisoning from a solo trip
to a Pakistani restaurant. However, our 12th man Joshua proved more than adequate and his
energy in the field was appreciated, as was his control with the ball as he snagged a couple
of key wickets. Sadly, CTCCCC proved too strong with their batting as they finished on 322/5 from their 35 overs. The Grannies struggled in the heat as wickets tumbled. S Hungin was finding some form before, in typical Grannies style, a calamitous run out featuring Pal standing resolutely at the non-striker’s end with cramp saw gloves flying and meant the equation looked even more grim.
Stand in skipper S Packer steadied the ship and finished on an unbeaten 94 but the Grannies
fell short finishing on 234/9. Pal has promised ‘many beers’ for the team as retribution for the disastrous event.
That evening we headed to a dinner organised by the Cricket Builds Hope team and once
again The Grannies won the prize for best dressed. A great speech by Percival thanking all
who were involved, and remarking on the incredible progress made by Rwandan cricket since the opening of the ground in 2017 - but the team were feeling the effects of a long day in the field, leading to an early night, much to Nagar’s dismay.

28th September 2024
Our final day and time for our third place play off against the Kenyans. The Kenyans won the
toss and opted to bat and the team were pleased to have B Percival back behind the stumps, playing through the pain of an injury suffered during the warm-up match. Percival quickly reminded everyone of his skill, taking some great catches and a run out. The final day had been shortened to a T20 and the Kenyans finished on 137/6 of the 20 overs. The Grannies were feeling optimistic and the return of M Ahmad proved to be the difference as he went on to make another 50, ably supported by S Hungin’s quickfire 38, before reluctantly being forced to retire. H Felgate had had enough of bowling world class spin and decided he was an opening batter, and also helped the team get off to a flyer with a boundary off his first ball. We chased down the total in 18 overs to win by 8 wickets to take the bronze medal which was well deserved.
We were due to fly home that evening so a trip back to the hotel to pre-order dinner.
Percival had endeavoured to make sure food was ordered 3 hours early and told to be ready
by 7pm, in typical Kigali time it turned up at 8:30pm…

Following dinner, the team headed off to Kigali International Airport for our flight home. An
amazing experience for all and the team were very happy to take a bronze medal home.
A special thank you to R Percival for arranging pretty much everything, the tour would never
have happened without you, and your keeping skills were missed. A big thank you to
Q Newcomb for all the efforts he put in to organise the tour and to skipper the team.
Another big thank you to S Packer for organising all the kit and being a stand in skipper
when needed, and a thank you to F Tritton for attempting to keep all Grannies members
up to date on social media.
A final thank you to all Grannies members for supporting the club and the tour, there will be
another tour in the next few years and we hope to see more of you on it then. Pictures can
be found using the link below.

FMC Tritton and SDS Hunginhttps://drive.google.com/drive/folders/11USVuFcNgJsxFcM-RxZMCWCP00cFmJRB


Match info

Also played: Chris Bell, Praveen Nagar, Abhimanyu Pal

Location
Kigali,
Rwanda